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The Best Crosshair for Hanzo
If you want to see through the dragon’s eyes, then you need to be using the right crosshair. Hanzo is a complex character to aim with because so many factors go into keeping your arrows true. After the latest rework to his kit, choosing the best crosshair for Hanzo is more important than ever.
Since the dawn of Overwatch, Hanzo has often been picked as an offensive DPS hero. This would often annoy teammates at best, or turn the game into a cesspool of toxicity at worst. But about three months ago, one of the biggest changes in Overwatch took place: Hanzo was reworked! Among other changes, Hanzo’s scatter arrow (the best and worst part of Hanzo’s kit depending on which side of the arrow you were on) was replaced with Storm Arrows. These new arrows changes completely change the way Hanzo is played, and more specifically, the way you use your aim with the different arrows.
Choosing a crosshair for Hanzo isn’t as simple as choosing one for Widowmaker or other long-range heroes. The trajectory of Hanzo’s arrows changes with both distance and the amount of power they have (how long you hold down left-click before firing). As a result, getting headshots with Hanzo requires you to account for your enemies movement, as well as their distance, and then adjust the “flick” of your shot accordingly.
This is where the extra lines and dots on Hanzo’s default crosshair come into play– or more accurately came into play when the game was first released.
The idea behind this reticle is this: the lines and the dots are supposed to be used as a guide for lining up the distance and the power of your shot, from furthest/full arrow charge at the top to close range/just tapping left click at the bottom. When the game first released players could use this reticle guide accurately. However, the velocity of Hanzo’s arrows has been tweaked so many times in the years since that you can’t completely rely on your reticle in this way anymore. Especially with the addition of Storm Arrows, which will fire instantly at full velocity.
Long story short, a lot more attention needs to be paid to customizing your crosshair now. We’ve put together a list of 5 of the best Hanzo players in the world, all with different crosshair preferences, for you to use as a guide to customize your own. Don’t be afraid to start off with the specifications of one of these pro players, and then adjust it until it feels just right for your own personal playstyle.
There are a lot of crosshair options to make your aim “true”. Below is a list of things you can change under the crosshair settings, and what they mean.
- Crosshair Type – This is the setting that will change what kind of reticle you are using. Your options are circle, crosshair, circle and crosshair, or “default”: in Hanzo’s case, this is the Overwatch-designed reticle I discussed above.
- Bloom (“Show Accuracy” on consoles) – This setting is particularly important to aiming with Hanzo because this setting will show the “charge” of your arrow as you hold down left click. However, turning this off will allow you to change the gap size of your reticle, which is considered more useful for some players.
- Color – The color of the entire reticle. Pretty self explanatory…
- Thickness – How thick the lines on the crosshair are.
- Crosshair Length – How long the lines of the crosshair are.
- Center Gap – The space in the dead center between the crosshair lines.
- Opacity – How “see-through” the colored-in parts of the crosshair are.
- Outline Opacity – How “see-through” the outline of the lines of the crosshair are.
- Dot Size – How big the dot is at the center of the crosshair. If it is set to zero there is no dot.
- Dot Opacity – How “see-through” any dot will be at the center of your reticle.
Wraxu
Wraxu is the Hanzo main that every gold-rank player thinks they can play like when they refuse to switch. Wraxu is a bit of a one-trick, yes, but a darn good one. However recently, he has started playing other Heroes more often and has joined the Tempo Storm pro team. Check out his gear in his full profile; it should definitely help you out if you want to main Hanzo!
While Wraxu changes his crosshairs slightly from time to time, what he prefers to use most is a medium-sized circle shaped reticle, with a dot at level 1 in the center. Usually it’s green (occasionally yellow as well), and at medium opacity. What these settings achieve is a reticle that’s perfect for headshots, and that doesn’t take up too much space on the screen. This reticle would be a great choice for players that feel confident in their ability to track enemies well and quickly flick their mouse to click on a head.
Another important thing to note here is that Wraxu has “bloom” turned off, meaning that he has no visual indicator of his arrows charge– he just knows it by feel and experience! Check it out in action here:
Seagull
Brandon “Seagull” Larned is one of the best and most well known professional Overwatch players ever. He rose to fame with his insane Genji skills, and became even better (and one of my personal favorite players) with his mastery of many different Heros. If there’s any players’ gear you want to emulate, its this guy’s; check it out here. One Hero Seagull mains recently (especially since the overhaul), is Hanzo. And Seagull likes to put Hanzo’s default Crosshair to good use.
It won’t take much customizing time at all to give this pro’s crosshair style a try. The only thing that’s different from the basic crosshair Hanzo starts with is the color, and it looks as if the opacity and the thickness have been raised ever so slightly.
In the example video below, and in general, Seagull uses the vertical and horizontal guidelines to help track and line up his shots. Another crucial use of Hanzo is his ability to get fast body shots, and frequent “peeking” shots from around corners, at choke-points, down hallways, etc. The default crosshairs provide a nice way to line up those type of shots quickly and accurately.
Saebyeolbe
Saebyeolbe hails from South Korea, plays for NYXL, and is one of the best DPS players in the Overwatch League. The crosshairs he uses for Hanzo are more along the lines of a classic sniper reticle: it’s green, short length, medium opacity, and there is no gap in the middle when the arrow is at maximum charge– that’s the one major difference! Saebyeolbe leaves the arrow “charge” indicator enabled, meaning that his crosshair actually expands and contracts to show the arrow’s power and accuracy. The first picture below shows Saebyeolbe’s crosshair before touching right-click, and then the second picture shows what the crosshair looks like when left-click is held down and the arrow is at full charge.
You can see this crosshair in action in the video below, and also be sure to check out Saebyeolbe’s full profile in our Overwatch Player Database.
Taimou
Taimou is a beast of a sniper. We covered his crosshair of choice for Widowmaker in another blogpost, and we have to talk about his Hanzo aim style too. You can tell that Taimou is a Widowmaker at heart because he uses a built-for-headshots small length crosshair that’s thin, medium/low opacity, a color thats not too obtrusive, and has a very small gap at the center. Importantly, the expanding and contracting to show the charge of the arrow that Saebyeolbe had on is now off, so the crosshair does not move at all.
This color choice makes the crosshair almost blend in with the background and with enemies’ outlines, which is what I believe Taimou is going for. He wants minimal distraction from his crosshair so he can focus on the action of the match. View the pro-gear Taimou uses in his full profile here, and watch him absolutely carry with Hanzo in the video below.
IDDQD
IDDQD is a professional Overwatch League player on the San Francisco Shock. He’s primarily known for his McCree headshot handiwork, but he often proves on his streams that he can click heads with Hanzo pretty well too (and Soldier, and Widow, and…etc.). IDDQD likes to switch between hitscan DPS Heroes, so as a result he likes his crosshairs to be relatively similar between characters.
IDDQD’s crosshairs of choice are generally red, small, medium thickness, medium opacity, and in Hanzo’s case: circular with no arrow charge animation. And with the newly incorporated Storm Arrows, I can see the benefit of having a static crosshair like this: when you really want to drill down on a Reinhardt it’s nice to have the focus of a tight red dot to guide your aim.
Conclusion
Aiming with Hanzo is a difficult feat. He might seem like an easy Hero on the surface (because spamming his arrows at a choke-point will get you a lucky headshot fairly often), but mastering his bow takes a good amount of practice and the right crosshair. Remember, you need to incorporate distance, power, and anticipation of where the enemy will be to land shots with Hanzo, so you need a crosshair that will help keep your aim as true as you claim it is!
Let us know in the comments which of these pro’s crosshairs you think would work best for you. And post the specs of your custom crosshair too so other players can give it a try!
